Etymology: < French blason (found in other Romanic languages, as Spanish blason , Portuguese brasão , Italian blasone , Provençal blezo , blizo ). By Diez and Littré referred to a Germanic word identical either with English blaze n.¹ flame, with blaze n.² a conspicuous mark, or with German blasen to blow (blaze v.²), Old High German blâsô a trumpeter. But the original meaning of Old French blason was not, as these conjectures assume, ‘glory’ or ‘proclamation,’ or even ‘armorial shield,’ but simply ‘shield’ in the literal sense. This is proved by the earliest quotations in French and English, and by the derived Old French sense of ‘shoulder blade’.

Etymology: < blazon n., or directly < French blasonner (similarly < French blason ) in use in 15th cent. As shown under blaze v.², that verb was in earlier use in this sense; and in the 16th cent. the two words acted and reacted on each other: compare 4 – 6 below, and senses 3 – 6 of blaze v.² Indeed so far as the evidence goes, the non-heraldic senses are the earlier, though the heraldic use of blasyn (blaze v.² 3) in the Promp. Parv. makes it likely that blazon in sense 1 may go back to c1500.